Egypt court jails top Salafist Abu Ismail for forgery

CAIRO — An Egyptian court on Wednesday slapped Salafist leader and former presidential hopeful Hazem Salah Abu Ismail with a seven-year jail term for fabricating documents related to his mother's nationality.

The court found him guilty of forging an official document about the nationality of his mother, judicial sources said.

Prosecutors had accused Abu Ismail of submitting documents as part of his presidential election application in 2012 asserting that his mother did not hold U.S. citizenship.

However, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry later presented documents proving that Abu Ismail's mother held U.S. citizenship.

An Egyptian court had earlier jailed Abu Ismail for one year for "offending the judiciary."

Abu Ismail is an outspoken critic of Egypt's army-backed interim authorities. He considers last July's ouster of elected president Mohamed Morsi a "military coup."